NASA Launches Three Military Drones Into An Active Volcano
Launching A Drone Ames research scientist Rick Kolyer launches a Dragon Eye UAV as part of a mission using drones to study an active volcano. NASA/ Matthew FladelandThe drones flew above a volcano's crater and into its toxic plume. Even from high above, volcanoes are difficult to study, because they blow out ash and nasty chemicals that can harm airplane engines. But careful monitoring of volcano behavior can improve computer models that explain how they work, and could even predict how they'll behave in the future. To get better data, NASA is sending some military drones into the breach, where the robots can do the dirty work for them. In March, a team from NASA's Ames Research Center took three electric drones they had obtained from the U.S. Marine Corps and traveled to Costa Rica. The team wanted to study the Turrialba volcano, which has a continuously erupting plume belching...